William Bray was born in New York State in 1868 and had an early
apprenticeship there in architecture. He moved to Duluth in 1891 to work as a
draftsman and was employed in the office of Traphagen & Fitzpatrick from
1892 to 1898. In 1902, he was a partner of Carl Wirth, and then joined I.
Vernon Hill in partnership from 1902 to 1904. From 1904-1905 he practiced alone
and in 1905 he partnered with Carl Nystrom; the partnership lasted until about
1915. He returned to private practice and subsequently entered into a
partnership with Claude H. Smith in 1923 which lasted until 1925. When Bray
retired he moved to California. He died in Beverly Hills in 1959.

Carl Nystrom was born in Sweden in 1867 or 1868 and immigrated to the
United States in 1889. He worked in several architects' offices in Ironwood
(Michigan), Ashland (Wisconsin), and Duluth, where he settled in 1892. He was a
partner in the firm of Young & Nystrom from 1902 to 1905, and then joined
William Bray in partnership until 1915. After the dissolution of the firm,
Nystrom practiced alone until his death in 1944.

Scope and Content Note

Collection includes plans for hotels, schools and civic buildings
designed by the architectural firm of Bray and Nystrom, including the Holland
Hotel (Duluth, 1909); Wakefield (Minnesota) Town Hall (1915); and elementary
and high schools at Eveleth and Marble, Minnesota.

Additional Finding Aid

An unpublished finding aid with detailed contents is available in the
Manuscripts Division.

Related Material in the Northwest Architectural Archives

Claude H. Smith papers (N 95)

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog
of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about
related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these
headings.